Perhaps the greatest similarity between #transgenderism and #transvesticfetishism is that neither represents any greater threat of sexual criminality than the general population. To break gender norms, even for sexual purposes does not mean someone is willing to break ethical norms as well.

It is not a new phenomenon either- people have been expressing forms of gender variance for thousands of years. The first gender confirmation surgery is nearly one hundred years old. Hormone treatment has been available for decades and its use on minors for a variety of conditions is scarcely newer.

A #transgender person's motivation for transitioning or presenting as different from their assigned gender is not sexual in origin, although they may enjoy expressing their sexuality as much as anyone else. Nor is it a mental illness- it has been removed from the DSM for some years now.

I have never suffered from #genderdysphoria. I am very happy with my daily identity as a man and have no desire, either positive or negative in nature to change it in any lasting fashion. I say positive because for some #transgender people, dysphoria is not the feeling driving their identification.

I am a #transvesticfetishist, an #autogynophile, a #crossdresser or #transvestite (although even those two are not synonymous with the prior two) and in twenty years of knowing, speaking to and learning about #transgender people, it is undeniable that my experience is entirely different from theirs.

#GenderCritical or #transphobic people are keen to equate #transgenderism with sexual fetishism- the term often used is #autogynophilia. In doing so they seek to present transgenderism as a form of #sexualdeviancy with the further implication that they are #sexualpredators. This is simply untrue